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Saturday, 7 May 2016

95. 5000m

Event: 5000m Date: 27th April + 1st May 2016Location: Wivenhoe Trail + Colchester Athletics Track Cost: Free Rules: Athletes run around the track 12.5 times in this long-distance event, completing the race in the fastest time possible.

The Event:

Huge thanks to Eliza, Imogen and Rachel for helping me across the line!

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal, London 2012: 15:04.25 - Meseret Defar, Kenya.

Ellie: 1:11:44.30

Sarah: 35:17.19

Comments: Sarah: From the start of the Challenge, I knew I wanted to try this one on the track to experience the monotony of repetitive laps and just make it that bit harder for myself. I was, of course, cursing that decision when I went up to the track, and felt pretty daunted by the distance ahead. Although I'd been training hard, I definitely had the pre-race nerves. Our coach Chris had come up with a really great plan to have one of the Harriers run two laps with me, then swap over and repeat for the whole distance. I'd also roped my husband Greg in to run with me, and they all really helped me along. With them changing every couple of laps, it really broke the distance down into smaller chunks, and I kept visualising where I would be equivalent to in my normal running route. The laps didn't fly by, but they definitely ticked down steadily, and the whole thing was much more fun than I'd been expecting. I even managed a 'sprint' finish when I was joined by all the Harriers in the final half-lap! I'll definitely stick to countryside running in future, but am really glad I was able to experience long-distance on the track. Ellie: I am never going to be a runner and I'm not too worried about that but it really made me think about the best way to complete the distance races. I decided that a 5k walk with Sarah would be the best way to do it. I wanted to reassure myself that this kind of distance that can seem quite intimidating is not as far as I thought and so we had a really pleasant walk along the quay and beyond. It was a great chance to catch up and essentially I didn't notice the walking which really is my idea of exercise heaven. I'll be trying this sort of distance more regularly for a wander to let of steam or check out the neighbourhood.